Did I discover the secret sauce for building a wildly successful business?

For many years now I’ve been on a quest. I’ve been looking for the “secret sauce” for building a wildly successful business. I’ve searched through stacks of books and research papers on the subject and supplemented my reading with interviews of executives from many different companies.

I’m supposing that I have many miles to go on this journey before I’ll feel comfortable saying that I’ve discovered the compete secret sauce recipe, but I can report with confidence that I have found three of its key ingredients.

These ingredients are derived from an attribute I found present in every successful company I’ve studied: Company executives who were genuinely passionate about improving the wellbeing of their people.

This feature transcended industries and was a dominant feature of the management culture regardless of whether they manufactured steel, ran grocery stores or were in the advertising business.

Based on this observation, I’ve concluded that three key ingredients in the secret sauce for a wildly successful business are as follows:

Craft and publish a mission statement that puts the well-being of people first.

Hire and groom executives who have a genuine passion for achieving this mission.

Create the processes and structures to maximize their effectiveness in performing this work.

What is amazing about this simple idea is that, although it does not guarantee success of a particular business strategy, it optimizes the performance any organization over the long term. Based on my research, firms that follow this recipe invariably see lower voluntary employee turnover rates, higher employee engagement, higher productivity, and improved profitability.

Jim Nortz is a compliance and ethics consultant and educator with Built on Ethics Advisory Services, a firm dedicated to helping organizations thrive by building sound internal controls and a strong ethical culture. He has served as a compliance officer for four multinational corporations and is a nationally recognized expert and thought leader in the field of business ethics and compliance.